Thursday, November 6, 2014

KennesawState’s hockey program
joins the plethora of excitement surrounding Owl athletics, striking excitement
in students, growing in popularity, and even becoming a winning team. Coming
off a one-year suspension during the 2013-2014 season, which was due to team
members violating a club policy when team members trashed a hotel room, the
Owls have resumed at full strength sporting a 7-2 record to start their
2014-2015 campaign with wins over Tulane, Ole Miss, and cross-state rival Life
University.

A Division III club sport competing in the American
Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA), the Owls have had success in the past on
a national scale, winning the National Championship in 2006-07 and have
competed on the national level a few times since.

The team currently plays their home games at Kennesaw’s Ice
Forum and draw a significant amount of fans from the local community. Right
Wing Alex Dolhon favorably compares the attendance at Owls home games to that
of other arenas the team has visited on the road. Boasting about 500 to 1,000
fans per game, KSU is one of the ACHA’s leaders in overall game attendance and
it shows a significant impact on the players momentum.

“We went to like, Nashville,
they had no fans, Charleston,
they don’t have any fans. Nothing compares to playing at home. The atmosphere
and the home field advantage is just great.” said Dolhon. “People like hockey
around here. I think they just enjoy the games. We’re a good team, so they
enjoy the games. When the fans are louder, I think we feel better hearing the
chants and all that it’s a great atmosphere.”

Despite Kennesaw’s winning success and growing fanbase on
home ice, the players know that the hockey dream stops on Barrett Parkway. Being a club sport, they
will not have the opportunity to become professional in the sport following
graduation. The motive behind being apart of KSU hockey is truly for the love
of the game “I’ve been playing for about 14 years now and I love the game, and
it’s addicting.” said Dolhon “My cousin got me into hockey and I started
becoming a big fan and started playing.”

Assistant captain and center Rick Fiorillo says that playing
the game is more of a release to relieve stress "The whole year we weren't playing hockey, I was going crazy. I had to work out every day." said Fiorillo. "I love hockey, it's a relases and I enjoy the atmosphere and camaraderie of the team."

The team shares a tight chemistry on and off the ice, advertising their games outside KSU's Commons area and spending time with other team members. "We are always in contact with each other, working out at the gym together, eating lunch in the Commons, there's a good strong bond." said Fiorillo "We all know that we aren't going anywhere, that this is our last opportunity to play good hockey, so it's very much for love of the game."

Owls hockey has many exciting renovations to look forward to. The goal of the team is to reach Division II within the next season and they will also have a new ice hockey rink built behind the Party City on Barrett Parkway within the next year which will help the team's constant time restraints at the Ice Forum whilst providing them with a new home complete with their own locker room.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Georgia’s youngest Representative Michael Caldwell, after
both losing a run for State legislature in 2010 and becoming the state of
Georgia’s youngest state representative, runs unopposed in 2014 defending his
views on small government by articulating the rights Americans have that makes
us unique from the rest of the world.

A dual citizen of the United
States and the United
Kingdom, Caldwell
has a wide knowledge on the government’s role in citizens’ rights. He cites the
Constitution’s statement of unalienable rights from our creator as rights
separate from the government and the issue of divinity, that we have these
rights not because they are given, but because we are human beings. Caldwell states that we are among the “Fortunate five
percent” to take part in the Great American experiment of self-government that
makes the United States
stand out from the government of other nations.

”The sole fundamental difference in American government is
that in our founding documents we recognize that our rights are given to us by
our creator” said Caldwell.
“And whatever you believe about divinity couldn’t matter less because what the
difference is that we are the first nation in the history of the world, the
only nation since, to recognize that our rights come from something other than
government.”

Youth and adults that Caldwell
have spoken to have been unable to articulate a strong answer to the question “What
makes America
the greatest nation in the history of the world?” They are rarely taught, Caldwell says, this
principle in governing. When we are taught the difference between America
and every other “free” country we can take pride in the liberty that we
established in the Western world.

“When I travel under my United Kingdom passport, when I
deal with their government, they understand that I have rights solely because
her majesty the Queen of England has granted me her sovereign rights. That’s
the only reason I have rights. Any time she decides I don’t have rights, she is
the sovereign. I no longer have rights.” said Caldwell “Under my American passport, I am
the sovereign. I have rights because I’m a human being. The core princle here
is the approach that you have rights that I didn’t give you is a unique
approach.”

Caldwell
has observed that the debate of rights often turns into a discussion of the
separation of church and state, in which he argues is a different subject than
that of unalienable rights. However you believe the rights
originated, there are certain rights core to us as individuals. Aside from the
primary purpose of government to protect these liberties of the people, the
smaller the government the better.

Caldwell weekly hosts a
coffee discussion held with other District representatives at Copper Coin
Coffee in Woodstock, Georgia. Around a small table with slow jazz music
playing and each person in attendance holding a cup or mug, the discussion of
rights shifted to the state of police not being aware of the rights that citizens
have in the instance of police encounters without a warrant. “By no means do I
believe that we are on a frightening police path yet, but we are on an
interesting path if we don’t state precedent” said District 21 representative
Scot Turner “And not just educating police officers, but educating citizenry.
That’s the problem is that police become 007’s. ‘I feared for my safety, so I
shot him. Okay he’s following procedures’ I mean, it keeps happening. We’ve had
one shot dead in CherokeeCounty and the guy in
Lawrenceville that was executed in his own home and nobody’s going to get
punished.” Wisconsin is setting up a system that a third party review panel
under departments of the state will review a police afflicted death along with
other efforts to curve no knock warrants in both the Senate and the House.

Liz Baxter, Council Member Ward 4 in Woodstock, just finished police academy and
has been considering her stance on the issue. “I have bent my views on
different things. For lack of a better term, I guess I’m on the fence right
now.” Baxter said “Several years ago, they had a set up where you go into the
place and either shoot or not shoot. It was an exercise that was all paper, but
I don’t know what it would be like in real life.”

The consensus amongst those in attendance was to focus the
issue around the motives behind the polices actions. Discussing from the police
perspective, SWAT team training to be prepared to kill depending on who they
are dealing with along with the lack of research on both the CherokeeCounty
and Lawrenceville incidents. Caldwell
argued from the perspective of the officer rather than the fourth amendment
posing the question if it was justifiable to put the officers in danger.

Caldwell
affirms, however, that the idea of rights endowed to us as human beings are not
a product of the government but must be protected by the people and the
government at all costs. “There is a frightening lack of understand about
American exceptionalism, rights, and history in this generation” said Caldwell “When our
citizens understand these principles, they are prepared to safeguard them for
themselves as well as for future generations.”

The idea of unalienable rights is not only integral to Caldwell’s beliefs but
his whole philosophy on government. Caldwell’s
first bid for office was in 2010 at the age of 21 which despite his strong beliefs,
it was not likely that he would attain much of the vote. “At the beginning of
my first bid for a seat in our State Legislature in 2010, I sat with an
influential State senator. We spoke for nearly an hour and at the end, he told
me that although he appreciated my ideas and beliefs, that at my age if I took
10% of the vote, I would change the way he viewed Georgia politics.” said Caldwell “I decided that instead of bowing out, and if we weren’t likely to take a victory, that I would run a campaign exactly the way I thought a campaign should look. This involved things like self-limiting campaign contributions, prohibiting myself from accepting funding from anyone other than Georgia’s citizens or businesses, setting a new standard for transparency through tools like online fund trackers and legislative trackers, and more. I had no preconception of what a campaign “should look like” Though that felt like my biggest weakness at the time, hind sight has shown me that it was actually my biggest strength.”

Caldwell
took 46% of the votes on Election Day, losing by about 200 votes, an experience
that made an impact on his career as a politician. “Now that I have won and
lost, I have a clear favorite, but I wouldn’t trade my loss in 2010 for
anything. I learned more through that process and experience than I could have
learned in five wins.” Caldwell stated that both
the State of Georgia and the
United States
face a “daunting” number of issues in the future. He informs voters that we
could solve 90% of America’s
problems “if we could just get elected officials to maintain their oaths of
office, to uphold the Constitutions of ‘this State and the United States.’

Thursday, September 4, 2014

The Cobb County Department of Transportation is working on constructing the new Skip Spann Connector bridge to cut down traffic for Kennesaw State students. The project is aiming to provide a better and safer route to not only Kennesaw State but also Towne Center Mall and other local destinations. "KSU is growing, and Chastain Road becomes maxed out. So the bridge will offer an alternative to going down Chastain." said James Hutchens from the Department of Transportation.

Kennesaw State's 25,000 commuter students no longer have to share the same route bringing motorists from I-75 to U.S. 41, causing a vast amount of congestion in the morning hours. The bridge is a $17.5 million project which according to the Cobb County DOT model will reduce traffic on Chastain Road by 19 percent.

The Skip Spann Connector will be over I-75 north of Chastain Road. The bridge is also a roundabout at Busbee Drive and TownPark Lane. Roundabout have a history of being a safer way to drive. Reduced delay time for vehicles passing means less confusion about four-way stops and also calms down traffic by slowing down the speed limit and directing cars in a little circle to their intended destination. Speeds at roundabouts are generally 25 MPH or lower causing shorter break time and longer decision making time.

"When the South finally adopted roundabouts, Cobb County saw a huge decrease in traffic. Now there are about 5 or 6 roundabouts in the West Cobb area." said James Hutchens "There's no traffic light and everyone moves at slower speeds."

Some commuter students are reticent to the development. " I don't think that they would decrease it because in a roundabout people don't signal or use it properly so people sometimes have no idea where they are going." Said Alyssa Wright, a KSU commuter student from Marietta. "Also, our roundabouts have plants or other things in the center so it makes it more difficult to see, therefore making it more dangerous."

A roundabouts purpose is to be a safe way to direct traffic. In a roundabout, the driver can easily navigate through a roundabout simply by seeing if there is another driver currently in the circle. If there is no car in the circle or the other driver has just moved into the circle, the first driver may pass with quick reaction time. If there is a wreck in a roundabout, the damage will be slim to none. The worst on average is perhaps a fender bender or a dent that is much less dangerous and costly than a crash involving injury or fatality.

According to the Cobb County DOT Website, a 2002 study reflects these facts, reporting a 60% decrease in total crash rates, an 82% reduction in injury crashes, and a 100% reduction in fatality crashes. The roundabout also benefits from lower electricity and maintenance cost that come with traffic lights and also a very unique aesthetic look.

Roundabouts have also been known to be environmentally friendly by reducing air pollution. Because the flow of traffic is improved, fuel consumption and vehicle emissions are also reduced. They are also safer for pedestrians, who have a lot of walking room on sidewalks across the perimeter and cross only one direction of traffic.

More information about roundabouts and the construction process can be found at the Cobb County

website at http://www.cobbcounty.org/images/documents/dot/SkipSpann/roundabout_march2013_flyer.pdf.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Following the Fall Retreat, the Student Government is looking to enter the year with a bang. During the retreat, it was decided that the main focus of this year was governance, particularly reaching out to students so that their voices would be heard by faculty and administration. Using the tagline "Speak up: Let Your Voice Be Heard", the current goal to approach the topic of consolidation is to work closely with SGA officers at Southern Polytechnic to establish one consolidated Student Government. This includes the students at Southern Polytechnic as well, as the KSU SGA is currently creating a governance document for the new consolidated SGA. This document will be submitted by Sept. 30, so all students even the new up and coming ones will be represented.

The SGA also would like to notify students of the new tobacco policy administered by the Board of Regents that all tobacco products are not permitted on any University system of Georgia campuses. The ruling will be in effect on Oct. 1st. In addition to implementing this new policy, KSU has developed a "Breathe Easy" campaign that will promote healthy lifestyles for all students. Guest speakers will also be invited around this time to speak at general body meetings to discuss the policy and implementation. Rachel Martini said the dates for the sepakers will be determined soon.

The first Student Government meeting of the Fall Semester is August 28th at 3:30 p.m. in the University Rooms. Be there to show your support and raise any concerns you may have.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

The Student Government at Kennesaw State is looking to form a single student government with Southern Polytechnic following the school's joining together in 2015. The SGA has posted a link on their website to the new up and running consolidation website. The site shows the month by month progress of the consolidation between Kennesaw and SPSU as one Student Government after the schools combine in 2015, which has slightly gone forward since June.

The Consolidation Implementation Committee handles the decision making process regarding the new university's structure, vision, and mission statement. Their membership has expanded, adding twelve faculty members representing the academic schools of SPSU and the degree granting colleges of KSU. This helped extend the CIC from 28 members to 47 members handing the selection process. Two academic deans and department chairs were also added from each school.

The CIC has approved 191 recommendations regarding the 81 Operational Working Groups (OWG's), who is responsible for most of the work on the consolidation. The groups are divided into categories such as Faculty Affairs, Overall University Structure, and Academic Degrees and Programs. 48 of the OWG's were completed in May. Due to long term requirements, the CIC and Expanded Consolidation Implementation Committee (ECIC) have asked for extensions in their work on the other 33 yet to be completed. The list of the people involved with the OWGS can be found at http://www.ksuspsuconsolidation.com/committee-members/working-groups/working-groups-leadership-and-responsibilities/.Changes have been made to ensure the transition of the consolidation moves as quickly as possible. Dr. Ron Koger was named interim president of SPSU by University System of Georgia chancellor Hank Huckaby in late May and Professor Richard Cole, dean of the School of Architecture and Construction Management, was chosen to serve as interim vice president for Academic Affairs. This is following former president Dr Rossbacher and former VPAA Zvi Szafran's decision to accept presidential positions at other universities. In addition, director of recreational sports Karl Staber will serve as interim VP for Student Enrollment Services and Jim Herbert, director of information technology, will serve as interim chief information officer (CIO). Their biographies can be found at http://www.ksuspsuconsolidation.com/june-12-2014-interim-president-vice-presidents-cio-named-for-spsu/.

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After three or four graphs, put in a subhead.

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Then
keep going with the story. If you refer to the sidebar topic, underline it and
parentheses the headline for the sidebar as if it were a link (headline
of sidebar). If you refer to your external link be sure to put it in
parentheses also (www.externallink.com).

Insert your
graphic (picture) where appropriate and don’t forget to say in the caption who
took the picture. If it’s not immediately clear or obvious what the picture is
or who the picture is of, put the person’s name or a brief description of the
scene in the caption as well. You could also post your graphic in a separate
post. If you do that, be sure to put a headline on the graphic post and link
that headline on the homepage. (see below)

Sunday, March 23, 2014

The great debate for Spring elections took place at Prillaman Hall on Thursday, with our candidates looking to incite excitement in the student body and prepare for the future. The debate featured our President and Vice President candidates. Candidates for President are Alex Templeton, Eric Johnson, Kensley Fields, and current Vice President Khy Chestnut. Vice Presidential candidates are Tkeyah Duke, Je'Nell Hubbard, and Jessica McLeod.

Each candidate had their moment to share their agenda with those who attended, most of them focusing on the future of Kennesaw State and a desire to make our mark known as a more prominent university with the upcoming upgrades to the school. Later on, there were general questions regarding hot topic issues going on in the here and now that each candidate prepared an answer.

The first question was about the Board of Regents voting to create a policy to prohibit the use all tobacco products in the possession of the University System of Georgia and whether they were for or against it and what they would propose to administration about the policy. Most of the candidates opposed the bill in favor of giving students the right to smoke and use tobacco products. There was also the issue on the opposition of creating safer environments to smoke and the health rights of other students that may be sensitive to the smoke.

The second question was what to do about the consolidation with Southern Polytechnic in which the goal is to make them feel welcome and to have more pride as a school before welcoming in newcomers. Because of the negative reaction to the consolidation and the differences in campus culture, there is a desire to create a unity between the two schools.

The final question was about the football team and the new events surrounding the coming of the new teams and the role SGA will play in the new program. There is a lot of excitement about the start of the program and dealing with ticket allocations. The goal is to make sure all students are able to attend, as well as alumni.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

The year of Japan series continues at Kennesaw State with a lecture from the president of Honda motor manufacturing in Alabama, Tom Shouppe. Shouppe recently got promoted to chief operating officer of Honda North America starting April 1 and previously served as Senior Vice President of Honda of America Manufacturing and has been with Honda since 1988.

The Japanese concept heard often amongst those involved with Honda is Monozukuri, or the art of making things. The motive at Honda motor manufacturing in Alabama is to mold and advance the skills of individuals into a cohesive and successful team. Shouppe, being a baseball fan, used a quote from notable Reds manager Sparky Anderson that the players make the manager, never the other way around. "I think that's very very instructive advice as we consider a topic such as monozukuri and in particular the idea of craftsmanship and innovation." Shouppe said "At Honda, we really view our main business is about people. And the people define who we are and what we are." Associates at Honda are expected to perform to the best of their ability and the notion of craftsmanship deeply understanding what it means to achieve the highest levels of quality for each customer. Honda's foundation in North America was built on associates learn to focus on customer service with a high level of teamwork as well as a passion for overcoming challenges.

Thirty years ago, hundreds of experienced engineers from Japan came to Ohio and shared ideas and experiences to make the "Honda Way" work in North America with a conglomeration in Ohio. What was learned was transferred to Alabama, where the creation of the Honda Odyssey had it's start. The knowledge that was transferred has been transferred across America with each generation having the same values, sticking to what they call "The Honda Way" or "Honda Philosophy". Honda will change everything about their company to keep up with the current times and to stay competitive, but one thing they are adamant on never changing is their core values, which are held as the most important element of their work force and also utilizing a Monozukuri spirit. The core values are based around respect for the individual, and the individual's ability and willingness to challenge with their own ideas and their own passion, creating the mindset in associates to constantly question and attempt to innovate. "This makes in many ways the Honda Way or the culture that we've tried to establish a much bigger challenge, but it also creates a bigger opportunity in terms of innovation, growth, and maturity of our people." Shouppe said "So we think for the long term good of the company that this approach is appropriate for us."